After a five-month hiatus, heavy machinery operators are back at work on the winding dirt road that snakes across the face of a steep hillside overlooking the Chapala-Ajijic bypass.
The roadway gives access to 17 hectares of land blocked out for Las Minas, a residential and tourist lodging project that has generated considerable controversy among residents and environmentalists alike.
According to Chapala Urban Planning Department chief Enrique Rivas, full development of the project remains on hold, pending compliance with all red tape requirements by various government agencies.
He explained that the road work was halted last March on orders of Profepa, the federal agency in charge of enforcing Mexico’s environmental laws. The suspension order was issued following an inspection of the site carried out by Profepa officials last November and a subsequent review of the process of obtaining approval of an environmental impact study submitted to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).
Initially, Profepa ruled that further development of the land could not proceed until certain steps in the Semarnat procedure were completed. However, Rivas, said Profepa partially lifted the ban on August 1, with a provision that further work be limited solely to stabilization of soil and slopes to prevent landslide incidents.
The blueprints for Las Minas presented to the planning office map out plots for low and minimal density residential structures as defined by state law. They will stretch over the face of hillside and culminate in a complex of tourist cabins at the summit.
The project is registered in the name of Fernando Delgado Aguilera. Some opponents allege that this individual is acting as a front man for influential politicians who are bankrolling the development.
Rivas said the current municipal government does not have the power to scotch the project as a whole, being bound to findings and authorizations issued by previous city administrations going back as far as 1994. Nonetheless, full construction cannot proceed until specific studies and other requirements demanded at all levels of government are fulfilled.